Teachers at Glashan Public School recently pulled an old shoebox from a secret compartment hidden behind a wall at the school for nearly 40 years.

No one knows what’s in the “time capsule” created by teachers and students at the Arlington Avenue school in 1979.

Well, Rick Desclouds knows, but he’s not saying. “I’d be in big trouble if I told,” said the retired Glashan teacher with a mysterious grin. “But it’s not going to be empty.”

Opening the time capsule will be part of the fun when Glashan, Ottawa’s oldest public school, hosts a 125th birthday bash on Thursday.

The original one-room school on the property just off Bank Street opened in 1888, with one teacher and 99 students. Today, Glashan is a bustling, diverse school for Grade 7 and 8 students.

All of them are guessing what’s in the dusty shoebox from 1979 on display in a case in the school lobby. To give students clues about life in that ancient era, staff added other items to the display, including a video of the movie Grease and a portable cassette tape recorder — “I don’t know if the kids know what that is,” joked principal James Tayler.

Party organizers were kicking around ideas when someone remembered hearing about a time capsule. They checked with Desclouds, who was a teacher at Glashan when the time capsule was created to commemorate the opening of the new building. He led them to a spot in the brick hallway. Sure enough, when the brick was pried off, the box was still hidden there.

Staff and teachers plan to create a 2017 time capsule and put it back in the secret compartment for another generation of students to uncover. Students are compiling suggestions. “They’re asking each other, ‘Who’s going to give up their iPhone?’” laughed Tayler. Teacher Ruth Elias has collected 50 ideas, from coins and bus tickets to a fidget spinner.

Glashan inspires fierce devotion from many graduates, all of whom are invited to the party. There will be displays of old photographs, trophies and memorabilia, a performance by the school band and, of course, a game of volleyball in the gym between students and alumni.

An old picture for Glashan’s 125th anniversary.Jean Levac

Glashan is the volleyball school. The Glashan Spikers are the proud holders of multiple provincial championships. But it’s also a school where everyone is encouraged to play — as many as a dozen volleyball teams, from recreational to competitive, operate during the school year. That tradition started with Desclouds when he took a job as a phys-ed teachers there in 1973.

“I didn’t want to cut the kids, so I just kept adding new teams,” he explained.

The school also offers numerous clubs and activities.

“What’s different about this school is that there is always something to do at recess,” said Hala Abdel-Qader, 12. She’s on the student council and is part of a team developing “deep learning” strategies.

Abdel-Qader said she also appreciates the freedom given students at the school, such as being allowed to walk around the neighbourhood during lunch hour.

“It makes you feel like, ‘Oh, they trust me.’ Very few people are ever late. They respect the rules.”

The downtown school has always drawn a wide mix of cultures and incomes, from recent immigrants to the children of the elite. Ben and Rachel Harper, the children of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, both attended Glashan, with an RCMP officer stationed in the hallway. The Harpers fit right in, said teachers. Two of Ben’s best friends were refugees from Burma.

Murat Erlik described the school when he arrived there in the mid ’90s: “Diverse, a lot of great sports, great teachers.”

As a poor kid growing up in public housing, Erlik was full of energy and anger. His family couldn’t afford organized team sports, but Erlik joined every team at Glashan and was a top athlete. “Glashan gave me the opportunity to express myself.

“The only thing that gave me confidence and self-esteem was sports. Athletics saved my life.”

Today, Erlik is back at Glashan as a teacher and coach, working beside Mike Caplan, his old phys-ed teacher. “I love this school,” Erlik said fiercely. “I love this community.”

Ryan Milne, 14, is one of his star volleyball players on the Grade 8 Spikers team. “Glashan,” said Milne with a killer grin, “is a school like none other you will ever find. It doesn’t matter where you are from and what you look like, there is an opportunity to make friends and do something. People are very accepting and welcoming.”

And, of course, there’s the volleyball. “Myself, I can’t get enough of sports,” said Milne. Is he on any other teams? “All of them,” he said cheerfully.

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